The recipe for the famous Norwegian meatballs (100 times better than those at IKEA!)

Level: Intermediate
Total time: 1h 30min

When I want to make the whole family really happy for dinner, I make Norwegian meatballs. They love it! It is not a creative or very decorative dish, but oh la la! (as the French say): It is so good! It was my favorite dish as a child and although I have made it evolve slightly over the years, the basics are the same: meatballs, brown sauce, sauerkraut, lingonberry jam and boiled potatoes! In France, you can get (not so good) meatballs at IKEA and they serve them with french fries… How you can turn a delicious traditional meal into junk food is beyond me but I’ll rest my case 🙂 I advise you to stick with the boiled potatoes and do as the kids love too: crush them into the sauce. Enjoy!

1: The butter in the sauce needs time to get brown. If you turn up the heat to speed the process you risk burning your butter

2: Prepare the dish as close to serving as possible as the sauce thickens rapidly

3: Don’t forget the traditional sides: boiled potatoes, sauercraut and lingonberry jam

Let’s get started

Ingredients

Meatballs

• 1 kg Minced meat
• 2½ tsp Salt
• Pepper
• 4 tbsp Potato starch
• 25 ml Milk
• 1 pcs Onion
• 2 tbsp Olive oil
• 2 tbsp Butter

Sauce

• 100 g Butter
• 80 g Flour
• 1 l Beef stock
• 50 ml Red wine and/or
• 1 tbsp Soya Sauce and/or
• 1 tbsp Cream and/or
• 1 tbsp lingonberry jam and/or
• Salt and Pepper

Sides

• 50 ml Lingonberry Jam
• Sauerkraut (recipe on the blog)
• 12-18 pcs Potatoes

How to do it?

Meatballs

Chop the onion very finely. Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a frying pan and cook the onions or medium heat for a few minutes until they are tender. You can also keep the onions raw if you prefer a sharper taste.

Mix the meat, potato starch, salt, pepper and onions. I usually use my hand to mix, but you can use a kitchen machine or a wooden spoon if you prefer. Finally add little by little the milk while mixing into a sticky mixture.

Heat butter and 1 tbsp olive oil in a frying pan

Form round meatballs using a spoon dipped in hot water and your hand and fry them on all sides until colored. They do not need to be cooked through at this stage.

Sauce

Melt the butter in a sauce pan and let it slowly get a nut brown colour while turning all the time. Keep it on medium heat in order not to burn the butter. This does take time so you need some patience here.

Add the flour and keep cooking while constantly whisking until the mixture has reached a brown color, watch the heat to avoid burning.

Pour in the beef stock little by little while whisking vigorously.

Finally use whatever taste enhancement you want or have; red wine, soya sauce, salt, pepper, lingonberry jam, cream… I add them all 🙂

Let the sauce simmer for a few minutes and then add the meatballs. Let it simmer at low heat until the meatballs are cooked through. Avoid stirring too much once the meatballs are in the sauce to avoid the sauce getting troubled by bits falling off from the meatballs.

How to serve the Norwegian meatballs?

Serve the Norwegian meatballs with sauerkraut, lingonberry jam and boiled potatoes.